Wigan fans are used to winning things. Oh, just the 22 league titles, on top of countless cups, shields and medals: their lads have lifted more silver than a royal butler or a very prolific burglar. Wigan rugby fans, that is. Wigan Athletic Football Club? Barely a shiny pot to pee in by comparison, except for a load of non-league stuff and two Football League Trophies prior to their top-flight debut back in 2005. So, the minted Manchester City were hardly trembling with fear as they lined up opposite the Latics for the FA Cup final on May 11, 2013. But what an occasion it was. We decided to look back at it.
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00:00Wigan fans are used to winning things. 22 league titles, countless cups, shields and medals,
00:10their fans have seen more silver than a royal butler. Oh sorry, oh wait no yeah that's Wigan's
00:17rugby team, yes. Wigan Athletic Football Club though, and sorry two seconds let me get the
00:22Wikipedia page up, and yeah with all due respect to their assorted non-league and football league
00:28stuff, barely a pot to pit in by comparison. So then when they reached the 2013 FA Cup final the
00:35best most people were hoping for was just to like avoid an embarrassment. The Lattics you see were up
00:41against the star-studded Manchester City who were fresh off winning their first league title in
00:46decades. But the whole thing about underdogs, they do occasionally have a way of surprising the
00:51favourites and this final would go on to be one of the most famous examples of that. And the thing is
00:58for Wigan who were one of the quote unquote smaller clubs in the Premier League at the time and who
01:04in an age of billionaires running teams were backed by a millionaire who made his money selling track
01:10suits, this was such a rare opportunity to not just outshine the town's rugby teams but also the region's
01:17other football clubs. It's a pretty proud town, Stuart McConey, a Wigan native and lifelong fan told
01:234-4-2. But that pride has always been expressed through the rugby. Many local football fans were
01:29tempted by bigger clubs like Man United are literally right there but McConey had followed
01:34Wigan's rise through the divisions. By 2013, he genuinely believed they could do the seemingly
01:40impossible against Manchester City. I always knew we had a chance, he told us. City hadn't yet become
01:46the global powerhouse they are today. And while Roberto Mancini's City squad did both stars like
01:52Aguero and Silva and Tevez and I could go on, Wigan's team was far less glamorous. Under Roberto
02:00Martinez they were really struggling defensively, teetering on the brink of a relegation and conceded
02:04ten goals in just the four games leading up to the final. Which made their run there all the more
02:12miraculous. Wigan's cup journey had begun with narrow victories over lower league sides like
02:17Bournemouth because yes they were a lower league side then and Macclesfield before an impressive 4-1
02:22win over Huddersfield in the fifth round. We were sensational Martin Tarbuck, editor of Mudhut,
02:28a fanzine told 4-4-2. Martinez found value in the places others didn't look. Key players
02:34like Aruna Kone and Callum McManaman helped propelled Wigan through to the quarter-finals
02:39where they stunned Everton with a 3-0 win at Goodison Park securing a place at Wembley.
02:45Manchester City's route to the final had been predictably a lot smoother with dominant wins
02:50over Watford, Leeds and Barnsley but Wigan knew they had something of a chance and despite Wigan's
02:57semi-final against Millwall being marred by off-field violence they made it through and knew they were
03:02just 90 minutes away from creating history. And the thing is despite the obvious disparity in
03:08footballing class between the two teams things weren't all chocolate and roses over at Manchester
03:14City. Costell Pantillamon was undisputably their cup goalkeeper not starting a single game in the
03:20Premier League but playing 90 minutes in every single round on their way to the final and yet without
03:26warning and just hours before the game he was dropped in favour of Joe Hart. It was really tough for me
03:32recalls Pantillamon who had been told he would play. I didn't accept it like okay it was tough for me.
03:38I remember being in my room and crying a bit because I was frustrated. It was strange for everybody
03:44because the decisions weren't made the day before or something just hours. Meanwhile over the corridor
03:50Wigan's spirits were buoyed by a motivational speech from their owner Dave Whelan who had famously
03:55suffered his own FA Cup heartbreak decades earlier. In the 1960 FA Cup final while playing for Blackburn a
04:02stray ball fell right between himself and Wolverhampton Wanderers Norman Dealey. Whelan got the ball and
04:09Dealey's late challenge got his sock, his shin pad and finally his bone. For those who lament the modern
04:16standards of officiating worth pointing out here that the referee just waves play on. Without
04:21substitutions, Greek mathematician Pythagoras having not invented them yet I'd presume, Wigan's ten men
04:27were roundly beaten 3-0. Before the game though Wigan's players including Captain Emerson Boyce
04:33shared a poignant moment with Joseph Kendrick, a young mascot with a rare genetic disorder.
04:39He ended up calming me down more than I did for him because he's one of us, Boyce told 442. And this
04:45human touch certainly did something as the team started the match with such aggression they visibly
04:50shocked Manchester City. But still quality does tell and they nearly struck early. Wigan's goalkeeper
04:57Joel Robles pulled off a crucial save to deny Carlos Tevez, one that Boyce insisted to us change the
05:03match even at that early juncture. And from there it did look like Wigan's tactical approach was
05:09absolutely spot on. Despite I guess technically being a 4-4-2, Samir Nasri and David Silva were not
05:16providing that Man City team any of their wick. They instead would look to drift inside and link
05:21up with Yaya Toure to help create chances for both Tevez and Aguero. The responsibility of hugging the
05:27touchline and stretching the defence then falling to Pablo Zabaleta and Guile Clichy. But Wigan simply
05:33did not let them settle. Callum McManaman and Aruna Kone in particular chasing down every loose ball at the
05:40back and not giving the City defence a moment's peace. Wigan's own full backs but in particular Roger Espinoza
05:46playing so aggressively that it forced City's all the way back into their own half. It was risky
05:52don't get me wrong and it was still allowing Manchester City to create chances but as the
05:56first half came to a close it did start to look like maybe it was working. And at the 45 minute mark
06:04the game was still 0-0. Wigan weren't yet dreaming of a spectacular upset but would have been growing in
06:10confidence that it was at least possible. As the second half progressed City struggled to break them down
06:15further and Martinez made a crucial substitution. Ben Watson, himself poetically returning from his
06:23own broken leg that had seen him miss six months of the season, entered the game in the 81st minute.
06:29His sides one and only change in the whole game and he did the unthinkable. With the clock ticking
06:3789 and City now down to 10 men, Pablo Zabaleta allowing the frustrations of the afternoon to manifest
06:43into a cynical hack at Maloney when already on a yellow card, it just happened. A nonchalant in-swinging
06:51corner dropped into the near post area and Man City's defenders remained planted to the soil.
06:58Zonal marking at corners is always the right way to defend until suddenly it isn't.
07:04A 91st minute winner in the cup final against one of the best teams in the world.
07:26I was crying, Tarbuk told us. It was just the greatest moment. The dramatic final whistle confirmed
07:34Wigan's 1-0 victory sending fans into a state of euphoria they had dared to dream of. But for the
07:40players, that joy was bittersweet. They still had a crucial league match against Arsenal which would,
07:47one way or the other, seal their fate in the Premier League.
07:50We couldn't even celebrate, Boyce told us. I went for a drugs test immediately after the game and when I
07:56came back, the changing room was empty. I just got dressed and sat on the bus. And in the days and
08:03weeks that followed that final, reality did set in. Just three days after the FA Cup win, they were
08:09relegated from the Premier League going down 4-1 at Arsenal. As cruel a reversal of fortune in football
08:16as has arguably ever been seen. The years since have, understandably, been difficult for Wigan.
08:22Financial troubles followed the sale of the Whelan family's majority stake in 2018.
08:27After a dismal period in the Championship and League One, Wigan were hit with a points deduction
08:32and relegated again in 2020. Further hampered this time by, you remember it, the COVID-19 pandemic.
08:40It's never boring at Wigan, Boyce told us. Did we celebrate because we won the cup or did we have
08:45to be respectful because we've been relegated? We weren't sure, but when we had that parade,
08:50all the fans came out regardless. It was absolutely magical. Now, some 12 years after their unforgettable
08:57victory, Wigan faces new challenges. But that 2013 FA Cup win still stands as a beacon of hope,
09:05not just for the club's long-suffering fans, but for real supporters everywhere. If Ben Watson's late
09:12goals should have proved anything, it's that these things, as unlikely as they may seem,
09:18do actually happen. If you've only got the patience to wait for them.